Police used a 50,000-volt Taser electric stun-gun against a teenager in Newcastle.

The 14-year-old - who was not shot with the weapon - was one of many children targeted by police armed with Tasers, despite fears its use could cause heart attacks.

Taser use has tripled against children in parts of the North, figures shown to the Sunday Sun reveal.

On average officers across Northumbria, Durham and Cleveland drew their Tasers more than once every 34.5 hours in 2014 - with children on the end of a severe shock once every 45 days.

Forces defended the use of the stun-guns, saying they were used only by specially trained officers and only when appropriate.

But critics said they were concerned what lasting effects Taser use could have.

Assistant Chief Constable Debbie Ford said: “Northumbria Police’s overriding objective when dealing with violent or threatening situations is to bring them to a peaceful conclusion while protecting both the public and our officers.

“Tasers can be a highly effective tool in the appropriate circumstances and we only make them available to a small number of officers who have been carefully selected and trained in its use. Consequently it is not widely used and only deployed when specific criteria are met.

“We take this responsibility seriously and every time a Taser is used during an incident its use is reviewed by a chief officer and the decision making process is closely scrutinised. If necessary any lessons learnt during the review process are then used to update training to all users.

“These figures show Northumbria Police officers are resolving the vast majority of incidents without the need to use Taser by employing other methods.

“In the small number of cases where tasers have been used officers have faced violence or threats of violence of such severity that they would need to use force to protect the public, themselves or a suspected offender.”

The police-issue X26 model works by firing two small probes which deliver a series of electrical pulses into a person, disrupting their neuro-muscular system.

Police have to record every possible use a Taser, including bringing the stun guns out and actually pulling the trigger.

Their use is recorded in seven categories. The highest level is if the stun gun is actually fired, followed by an “angled drive stun” and “drive stun”, where the taser is held against a person’s body and fired.

Following this is “red dotting” or “arcing” - which is the sparking of the Taser without aiming or firing - aiming, and drawing.

The youngest person in the region to be involved in a Taser incident was a 14-year-old in Newcastle, against whom a Taser was drawn.

Ron Hogg, the police and crime commissioner for Durham

Yet the number of Taser incidents could be set to increase, with Durham Police and Crime commissioner Ron Hogg revealing the of number police officers who carry Tasers while on duty in Durham could more than double.

At present in Durham, around eight officers on duty at any one time carrying a Taser and this could increase to 18 by the end of this year.

It followed a Police Federation call that all officers should be Taser equipped.

Amnesty International has raised concerns there was “no specific guidance on Taser use against young people and children”.

“There are specific concerns around Tasering children,” said the campaign group’s arms control and policing director Oliver Sprague.

“One is that it is more risky to Taser a child in terms of health effects.”

Heart muscles and bones may not have developed fully, Mr Sprague said, and “the other thing is the psychological impact.

“We aren’t sure what the psychological effects might be.”

Police should be “operating under clear instruction that says the presumption is that you will not Taser children,” he said, though he recognised there could be situations where there was “no alternative”, such as “imminent threat of death or injury”.

Across the UK, tasers were used on under-18s 501 times in 2014. The total may be even higher as Essex and Hertfordshire refused to answer the request.

Northumbria fired its Tasers three times against children, up from once the year before, and Durham five times, down from six in 2013.

Cleveland was one of only three forces, along with Derbyshire and Sussex police, to not record any uses of tasers against under-18s in 2014.

Overall Northumbria Police fired their stun guns on 23 occasions last year - having drawn them on 117 occasions - up from 13 times in 2013, which was itself an increase on the year before. Durham fired them 11 times out of the 81 incidents in which they were used, and Cleveland fired them 15 times against adults.

But officers were less inclined to perform one of the other main two techniques of using Tasers - the ‘red dot’ method.

Across the UK officers used electric stun guns 10,062 times in 2014 - 3.1% drop on the year before.